Workers at all levels in Silicon Valley once made as much as 40 percent more than in other parts of the country, as compensation for the higher cost of living. But computers and the Internet make it easy to set up offices anywhere, so the differential is now in the range of 10 to 20 percent.

Burbed Poll Time!

Are you making 40% more than you would be if you lived somewhere else?

October 12, 2006

cbs5.com – Liar Loans
Brian is a Bay Area mortgage broker. “Michael” is his client — a 23-year-old auto mechanic. The payment on Michael’s new home is $4,200 a month, but he only earns about $4,000 a month — leaving him $200 in the red. He was only able to get the loan because his broker used “stated income” to inflate his paycheck. Brian (the broker) said, “I put on the application that he made $13,000 a month, which was unverified … That’s the definition of a stated income loan. You state the income. Most definitely it was a fraudulent loan. The income was literally made up from thin air.”

Relocating to Cheaper Housing May Not Help Low-Wage Families – WSJ.com
The study, which looks at families with low to moderate incomes in 28 metropolitan areas, found that transportation costs in places with cheaper housing are often so high that they wipe out the savings from lower rent or mortgage payments. Such places tend to be farther from employers or short on public transportation, which makes commuting costlier.

The study found that housing and transportation costs combined eat up an average of 57% of annual income for “working” families, which the study defines as those with incomes of $20,000 to $50,000 a year. The combined costs ranged from 54% of income in Pittsburgh to 63% in San Francisco; in 25 of the 28 metro areas, the combined total was within three percentage points of the 57% average.

The findings contradict the common notion that many people would be better off financially if they moved from areas with high housing costs, such as California, to states like Texas or Georgia, where housing is much cheaper.

The median house price in San Diego, at $613,000, is four times that of Dallas. But the study found that working families in San Diego spend 59% of their income on housing and transportation, only slightly more than the 57% they spend in Dallas. Families in Dallas spent just 26% of their income on housing, compared with 31% in San Diego, but the Dallas families spent more on transport.

The study also found that moving to an inexpensive outer suburb, but continuing to work near a city center, often backfires. Typically, a move that adds more than about 12 miles to a one-way commute will result in a rise in transport costs that outweighs the savings on housing, the researchers found.

The data on housing and transport costs for working families come from the 2000 U.S. Census. Since then, both housing and transport costs have jumped, but Barbara J. Lipman, research director at the Center for Housing Policy, said the results are still valid. Housing and transport costs have grown by roughly similar amounts.

A man was shot in the back in Dublin Saturday after tailgating the shooter and engaging in other unsafe driving maneuvers, police reported.

A motorcyclist was run down, brutally beaten and thrown into a drainage ditch in Union City Thursday during an apparent incident of road rage.

Also on Thursday, a Dixon man was clubbed and stabbed during a confrontation over a traffic incident in Fairfield, police reported.

All three victims survived the attacks, but had to be hospitalized.

[snip]

Comey said that it was difficult to measure how widespread road rage violence was in the Bay Area, but his impression is that as people move farther away from their jobs in search of affordable housing, they are forced to spend more time in their cars, which could be increasing the number of aggressive driving incidents.

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